IF YOU lose a competition fair and square, that’s one thing, but if you’re prevented from even entering, it might ruffle your feathers.

There’s a GP in Nottingham who knows first-hand how that feels. Pulse (Jan 30) reports that Dr Chris Udenze is fighting to remain in his practice, which has been put up for tender under Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS). But he has found it impossible to obtain details about how to enter the tendering process.

“The Government is consciously favouring private companies,” says Dr Udenze. “It’s a bizarre ideology, where it seems to be Labour policy to pursue the Tory policy of privatisation.”

An investigation by Pulse supports the claim that primary care trusts (PCTs) are systematically favouring private firms over GPs in APMS tenders.

An analysis of data from 97 primary care trusts shows that 51 per cent of bids for APMS contracts had come from GPs, as had 46 per cent of shortlisted bids. But GPs were awarded a contract or preferred bidder status in just 9 per cent of tenders, meaning that private firms were victorious in 91 per cent of cases.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association’s GP Committee (GPC), says the findings are consistent with the GPC’s own dossier of evidence.

“When faced with the possibility of making a bid, many practices have found it incredibly hard to do so with the bureaucratic process, which is stacked against ordinary practices,” he says.

Chris Locke, secretary of Nottingham local medical committee, says GPs may have to form their own companies to have any chance of beating the private sector in the tendering process.

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